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Love-Bheits
"Love-Bheits" is the seventh episode in the second season of The Venture Bros. Plot Baron Ünderbheit uses an atomic super magnet to force the X-1 to land in Ünderland as the Venture family returns from a costume party. He captures the Venture family, destroys H.E.L.P.eR., and immediately falls in love with Dean, who is costumed as Princess Leia (in the metal bikini from Return of the Jedi). Since there are no holding cells in Ünderland (as explained in "Home Insecurity", every crime is sentenced with capital punishment), Brock, Dr. Venture, and Hank are imprisoned in a pantry. Ünderbheit and Dean share a meal of timberwolf in the dining hall, where the seven heads of Ünderbheit's previous wives are mounted like trophy animals. After the meal, Dean is passed off to two eunuchs to prepare him for the wedding, taking his measurements for a dress and cleaning him up. One of them discovers Dean's true sex when he is disrobed for his bath, but he decides not to mention the matter to Ünderbheit, as the eunuch is still bitter over his neutering. As Brock works on formulating a plan to escape from the pantry and rescue Dean, they are rescued from the pantry by the Ünderground, a small resistance cell that spends its time developing plans to prank Ünderbheit. Dissatisfied with the rather pitiful efforts of the resistance, Brock, Hank, and Doc leave the group in an attempt to storm the castle. After getting directions from a guard who survived Brock's rampage (but received some bad news about a lump in his testicles), the group races to the observatory where the marriage ceremony between Dean and Ünderbheit is commencing. While racing through the halls, bars close down separating Hank from Doctor Venture and Brock. Hank insists on continuing the mission while Brock insists that Hank stays behind. Desperate, Brock begs Doc to talk Hank out of what is likely a suicide charge. Doc tries but after Hank reminds Venture of his efforts to isolate the "gay gene" (which was halted due to massive protests and government hearings), Venture allows Hank to run off. Brock remains worried while Venture points out that if Hank dies, he can always make another and that he might surprise them with his crazy "retard strength". That hope is dashed, however, after Hank is audibly taken down (cutting his tongue on his Batman mask) not far away. Brock stops Doctor Venture from swallowing an arsenic-filled tooth when one of the walls opens into the observatory. There, Baron Ünderbheit announces that it is too late, he and Dean are now married. When he realizes that he does not know his bride's name, Dean (with Hank's help) reveals Dean's true identity. The resistance immediately follows in and Catclops and Girl Hitler have Ünderbheit arrested for same-sex marriage, which Ünderlaw forbids. The Baron resists, but Brock throws the arsenic-filled tooth at his forehead, stunning and injuring him, and allowing him to be captured. Ünderland is declared a democracy and Girl Hitler is immediately elected president (and engaged to Catclops). In order to improve the country's dismal image, they exile Ünderbheit rather than execute him. The Venture family walks through the hole the X-1 made in the bordering wall into Michigan. As a token of thanks, the resistance gives Doctor Venture the highest honor they can award to foreigners: the "Best Group Costume" Medal. After the credits roll, an annoyed Monarch answers the cocoon's front door, where Ünderbheit asks if he can crash there since he just got "divorced". Cultural references * The opening title of Ünderland is a parody of the opening montages for The Wonderful World of Disney from the early 1950s. * Early in the episode, Dean mentions that the Impossibles won the costume contest by dressing as The Fantastic Four. The Impossibles are clearly based on them. * This episode establishes several parallels with Star Wars: ** The Baron's chair is similar to the chamber in which Vader's bare head was briefly seen in The Empire Strikes Back. ** During the descent of the X-1, while the magnet is causing the jet to crash, Dr. Venture repeatedly tells Brock to "Lock in auxiliary power", which is a paraphrase from the parallel scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. In the original film, Han Solo gives this order to Chewbacca; Brock is dressed as Chewbacca for Halloween. ** The scene in which Girl Hitler lowers her mask is similar to the scene from Return of the Jedi in which Lando Calrissian, acting as a spy in Jabba's Palace, reveals his face. ** Brock can be seen carrying a broken H.E.L.P.eR. on his back, similar to the way Chewbacca carried a broken C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back. ** Dean claims at the wedding, "I'm a Boy Science Adventurer, like my father before me!," a paraphrase of the iconic quote by Luke Skywalker, "I am a Jedi, like my Father before me." ** The Star Wars costumes that the Ventures wear: *** Dean: Princess Leia Organa (first slave Leia then traditional Leia) *** Brock: Chewbacca *** Dr. Venture: Obi-Wan Kenobi *** Hank wears his Batman costume rather than a Star Wars one. He also paraphases The Dark Knight Returns when he says: "The recirculated air on my chest is a baptism..." (original line: "The rain on my chest is a baptism.") * The dinner scene with Ünderbheit and Dean is reminiscent of a scene in the movie Batman where Bruce Wayne and Vicky Vale are trying to have dinner at a long table but cannot hear each other. * The heads of Ünderbheit's former wives hanging on the wall is a reference to the fairy tale "Bluebeard". * When Dean is in the bath, the eunuch says, "We want you Holly Golightly, not Eliza Doolittle." These two roles were both played by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady, respectively. * The eunuch's double entendre, "The master likes playing the back 9 at Augusta" may be a reference to the Masters Tournament. * The shot of Baron Ünderbheit putting a thorned ring on Dean's finger, causing it to bleed, echoes a similar shot from Billy Idol's "White Wedding" music video. * When Girl Hitler proclaims Baron Ünderbheit to be banished, he is seen with a yoke bound across his shoulders, paralleling Connor MacLeod's banishment in Highlander. * Dr. Venture's attempted suicide-by-poison refers to a cliché used in many spy stories; the James Bond film Die Another Day, for example, explicitly mentions that 007 was issued a cyanide pill to be taken in the event of his capture. However, the plot device of a poisoned tooth specifically is used in Frank Herbert's novel Dune, when Duke Leto Atreides uses one in an attempt to assassinate Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Connections to other episodes * Catclops, Girl Hitler, and Manic Eightball reappear in this episode, all three having survived the "tiger-bomb" explosions.Episode "Home Insecurity" Manic 8-Ball is still a prisoner of Ünderbheit, and used in much the same way as a magic mirror. Catclops and Girl Hitler lead the underground resistance with Ünderbheit having no knowledge of their survival. An oblique reference to their survival was made in the DVD commentary to "Home Insecurity",Season 1 DVD commentary for "Home Insecurity" as Doc Hammer jokingly noted that we never saw the three advisors' bodies. * Several facts about Ünderland emerge for the first time in this episode: ** Brock mentions that it is smaller than Delaware. ** Ünderland's terrain is bleak, rocky, and volcanic. ** It borders Michigan. Production notes * The title of this episode is a pun on both the common phrase "love bites" and "love-bite", that play on the pronunciation of Ünderbheit's name. * In an interview with James Urbaniak, the episode was originally called "Ünderbheit 451", but it sounded too much like "Assassinanny 911" and so it was changed to "Love-Bheits". Interview with James Urbaniak * One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For "Love-Bheits" the credit reads Kimson "Retard Strength" Albert. References Category:The Venture Bros. episodes